The Living Note
by Ghostly Hand's Pen
Summary: The idea of this is how the shinigami became shinigami with the Living Note. First chapter is about Ryuk. The second chapter is a two parter - second part not up yet - about Rem. Rated M because it can get a little morbid at times and minor language.
1. Ryuk

_Author's Note: Okay, I'll admit I don't know anything about African culture or history or anything this story is supposed to be set in. I'm just going on how the idea was in my head. The story turned out pretty well despite being a little vague in some places. Please review and tell me what you think! I suppose this is a oneshot, but if I get a lot of reviews I guess I'll do another one with Rem or maybe Gelus (is that his name? I can't remember - ) Meow!_

Death Note: The Living Note: Ryuk

Hundreds of years before Light Yagami became Kira… Ryuk was a human. Half a world away from Japan, in southern Africa in a time of warring tribes, Ryuk's story begins and ends very different from Light's.

- - - -

"Did you see the white men?"

"White men? More of them? Why do so many keep finding their way to our tribe."

"Or at least to our scouting parties."

"I heard this is the biggest group of them yet."

"We should eat them."

"Eat them? We're not like the barbarian Nobo tribe! We don't eat our prisoners!"

"I heard they were already dead. A jaguar attack."

"Yes. Their bodies were brought back to show the clan leaders. Maybe when they're done with the bodies they can be salvaged. If the meat is still good some of the women may cook it."

"Does the Nobo tribe really eat their prisoners?"

"Heh, of course! Everybody knows that! What they do is skin you alive so they can where it! Put your skin on right there - still bloody and freshly cut - and wear your skin around right in front of you! That's when they'll cook you. They won't even bother killing you first - just cook you as you are. Then they'll dance around your burning body and you scream all you want. They'll just dance like it's music-"

"Stop it!"

"You're lying. Mobi, don't listen to the fool. There are all kinds of rumors about the Nobo tribe. They start up every time war breaks out between our villages."

"No I'm not," the black teenager grinned. He was 17 and the oldest in the hunting party. "One of 'em escaped a few summers back. You don't remember it because you were too young. He was missing all his skin and you could see his guts! He's still alive. He's all wrapped up in cloth and all he does all day is hide in his hut."

"That's impossible!"

"You're only one summer older than me and I don't remember that!"

"Ask Ryuk. He'll tell you if it's true or not!"

"Ryuk!" Mobi called. He was the youngest in the hunting party by a few summers. He'd made his first kill - a plump old boar - that morning.

Ryuk, the only one yet to kill an animal, had been ignoring his friends and concentrating on his hunting. He'd been slowly increasing the distance between him and his friends, walking with an arrow half cocked in his bow. He looked back at Mobi.

"Why ask me?" Ryuk asked calmly. His dark eyes were staring past Mobi.

"Because you are the chief's second son. If anyone here would know it'd be you, right?" asked the 17- year-old who was named Hajik. He was grinning wildly.

Ryuk stared at him. He was tall and had broad shoulders for his age. He was two summers younger than Hajik and was already bigger than him.

He tongued the spaces between his sharpened teeth absently. All the young men in his tribe had their teeth filed to sharp points when they became of age. Ryuk had his done years ago. "Yeah. It's just a rumor," he finally said.

"You liar!" accused Mobi turning sharply on the older boy.

"He doesn't know. He's not a warrior," said Hajik with his mocking smile. But he was ignored. Now everybody could tell he was lying.

Ryuk turned away from them in time to see a shadow moving quickly roughly 200 yards away. Ryuk's reflexes were perfect. He was one of the best in the village. In the same second he saw the shadow, Ryuk raised his bow and aimed. Instinctively aiming for where the neck should be, he shot.

The shaft sailed through the air. Everyone in the hunting party watched it fly. Nobody moved until it was brought to a stop in the trunk of a tree. It was close, at the least the animal had escaped with a few less hairs on its back.

"So close," mumbled Mobi at Ryuk's side.

"There must be a spirit protectin' that animal. It really looked like you had something," muttered Hajik. His smile gone.

"Are you going to go after 'em?"

"Of course," said Ryuk. "Unless something else comes out right now."

"What was that thing? Did anyone get a decent look at it?"

"A boar, maybe."

"It could have been a jaguar," added Mobi.

"A jaguar would have attacked not run."

"Ryuk, will you be okay going after that thing on your own? We're close to the village and we each have caught our share."

"That's fine," muttered Ryuk beginning to make his way toward his arrow. He took out his knife and readied it for trouble. "I'll be back before dark!" he called over his shoulder.

The land sloped downward and Ryuk found himself slipping a few times in the mud and tripping over underbrush. Sweat dripped down his forehead and he paused at the bottom of the slope to wipe it out of his eyes. He could see his arrow not far away sticking out of soft tree bark.

That was when someone called out to him.

Ryuk looked behind him up the slope expecting to see someone from the hunting party calling to him for some reason. But no one was there. The hunting party had long gone.

"Behind you! Can you give me a hand! I've been shot by one of these humans' weapons."

Ryuk turned around startled. He hadn't heard anyone sneak up behind him. But after he saw what it was, he cried out and stumbled backwards. He raised his knife with shaking hands, dropped it, grabbed for it, and finally raised it again.

A tiny demon that hadn't been there a minute ago was pinned by his arrow to a tree. It stared at him with one tiny pupiless eye and one large red eye. Its entire body was gray and skinny. Two skeletal, black wings grew out of its back. Its head was big and there were only a few black strands of hair hanging off it. Except for its head, the creature looked shriveled.

His arrow had the demon pinned to the tree by one of its wings and the demon was reaching for it with one of his skinny arms that wasn't quite long enough. Its other wing flapped haphazardly by itself.

"Damnit all! I thought you were a demon who could give me a hand, but you're the human who shot me!"

Ryuk tried to keep his voice steady, "W-What are you? Where did you come from?" he asked standing up. His eyes shifted form side to side wondering if there were more creatures hidden somewhere.

"I'm Hanabi the Jeweled King's Note Keeper, now could you give me a hand and remove this arrow since you _are _the human that put it there?"

Ryuk shook his head, "No. You're a demon. Why should I trust you? I should leave you. Or maybe kill you."

Hanabi laughed, "Sorry but humans can't kill me. You're better off shooting your arrows at the sky and hoping to hit clouds."

"But I can leave you!"

Hanabi's laughter stopped, "Well… that would be a problem. I have places to be. How about I make you a deal. I grant you one wish if you free me."

Ryuk cocked his head suspiciously, "A deal? But you're a demon. Won't you try to trick me? And where did you come from?"

"Why would I try to trick you? All I want is off this damning tree!" he flapped his free wing furiously trying to keep his body level, "Generally humans can't see me. I was just flying by when your human weapon hit me. I don't know how, lucky shot, I guess, nothing like this has ever happened to me before. When I saw you coming this way I mistook you for another demon like me. I thought 'What luck! Maybe this won't end badly after all!' So I called out to you. This is the key, whenever a demon speaks to a human that human can see them. Usually, demons can see other demons easily though. Hyak! Hyak! Simple really. Now about your human weapon…"

"I don't like the idea of making a deal with you," Ryuk said.

"Then don't! If you don't want anything then just remove this arrow and I can go. Your choice. It works out better for me if you don't want a deal. Then I can-"

"I didn't say I didn't want anything! I just said I don't trust you."

"Alright then," Hanabi smiled, but his rotting fangs looked more like a sneer, "What do you want."

Ryuk sheathed his knife and folded his arms and smiled, showing Hanabi his own razor sharpened teeth.

- - - -

Ryuk was preparing the newly killed boar to take back to the village. Hanabi flapped idly and watched over Ryuk's shoulder as he readied the boar's corpse.

"So this is the rat that you were aiming at when you shot me?" Hanabi asked.

"It's hardly a rat and, yes, I shot you when I was aiming for this one."

"Have you put any thought into what you want to wish for yet?" Hanabi asked changing the subject.

Ryuk said nothing. He wasn't in the mood for talking and even less in the mood for talking to a demon. Hanabi seemed to pick up on this fact very quickly and only laughed his strange laugh, "Hyak, hyak!" For some reason it sent chills down Ryuk's spine.

Ryuk pushed the eerie laugh from his mind and tried to concentrate on his work. They didn't have much time before the sun would set and a good two miles stood between him and home. Running into Hanabi had cost him more time than he expected and they'd have to hurry to make it home before dark with the boar.

Not that Ryuk could have known, but the delay was his curse and his salvation.

- - - -

"We're going back to your home now, right?" hissed Hanabi. He hadn't said anything since they caught the boar.

Ryuk nodded assuming Hanabi could see him in the rapidly decreasing twilight.

"Your village is close, right?"

Again, Ryuk only nodded. The demon still disturbed him and he was wanting to focus all his attention on getting home before dark. They were almost there.

"Are you the type of human that builds giant fires at night to destroy stuff?"

Ryuk stopped and looked back at Hanabi thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about? Destroy stuff? Why would we destroy stuff with fire?"

Hanabi laughed to himself and scratched his bald head with one clawed finger, "You must not be that kind of human then."

"What kind of human?" asked Ryuk momentarily forgetting his urgency.

"Hyak, I don't know. I don't care a lot about the Human Realm, but every time I look down at it there're humans burning stuff. Sometime they're burning forests away, or buildings, every once in a while I'll catch them lighting each other on fire. As far as I know they're just bored. Hyak, Hyak."

"What brought all this on?" asked Ryuk still not understanding what Hanabi was talking about.

"Oh yeah, if you aren't a human that lights things on fire on purpose then what is that for?" Hanabi pointed at the sky behind him.

Ryuk turned warily in the direction Hanabi was pointing.

The sky was bright orange and red. Black smoke rose into the sky and blended in with the night. His village was on fire. They were still a good half mile away and the fire was huge. A fire that size could easily consume the whole village.

Ryuk took off running leaving Hanabi and the dead boar without a word. His mind was racing. He'd seen out of control fires before but nothing like this. Nothing this big. He became aware of Ryuk shouting at him and flying after him quickly with his great wings flapping leisurely.

Branches were slapping Ryuk's arms and legs with a stinging bite but Ryuk didn't care. His calloused feet were carrying him over the familiar terrain faster than ever before. After a solid five minutes of hard running Ryuk was home. He burst through the edge of the forest on his burning village and immediately understood the truth of the situation he was in.

Everything was flaming and people were being slaughtered. Where were his village's warriors? Were they all defeated? Emotions raged inside Ryuk willing him to do something but the chaos was everywhere. Ryuk watched uselessly at the edge.

Ashes and debris consumed the paths Ryuk had walked his whole life. Few of the villagers were about and for a while it seemed abandoned. Some small fires were burning themselves out while the wind kept the bigger ones moving.

A young girl ran out of a flaming hut. Her legs and arms were on fire and she dropped to the ground fifty yards from Ryuk. She was bleeding from a wound in her stomache and had almost no chance of surviving even without the fire. A Nobo warrior materialized to finish her off.

The Nobo warrior's prescence was like a switch in Ryuk's head. Suddenly the evidence of war was everywhere it seemed silly he couldn't see it before. It was in the blood and murdered cattle. The abandoned, broken blades and sticks. Severed limbs hidden in the high grass. Broken doors and thieves making off with items before the fires turned them to dust.

The girl was screaming now and Ryuk couldn't understand if she was calling for help or if she was telling him to run.

He could hear Hanabi laughing behind him and it was his manaical laughter that angered Ryuk to move. He swiftly turned on the demon and found he was not alone. A Nobo swordsman barring a bulky knife was upon him. The swordsman couldn't see Hanabi and was only after Ryuk.

Hanabi was laughing because he was sure he'd soon be relieved from his promise to grant Ryuk a wish.

- - - -

Consiousness came to Ryuk slowly and he was surprised to be alive. He could tell he was on his stomach and tied with thick cord around his arms, legs, and wrists. He also reconized the hut he was in as one of the elder's of his village one roomed hut. He was sharing his confinement with two women he didn't reconize. They were both dead in each other's arms.

"Hanabi," whispered Ryuk. He could feel Hanabi crawling on his back and reach one skinny, cold hand around his shoulder.

"Still alive are we? What do you want?" he hissed in a knowing voice.

"I don't… want to die."

Even though Hanabi was behind him Ryuk could still see the scheming smile spread across Hanabi's lips.

"You want me to get you out of this, your saying?" He could feel Hanabi's tiny body shifting around on his back. His clawed hands lightly pricking his skin. "Just say the word, you want me to kill the guard out front? Or I can transport you to another place. It's easy if-"

"I want to live forever."

Hanabi's prodding came to an abrupt stop. He could picture the little demon frozen in his position, perhaps one clawed hand still in the air as he questioned himself if he heard correctly.

"I can't do that," he finally said, "Well… maybe that's not entirely true. But there are conditions and you have to be-"

"I don't care about any of that. If there's a way, I'll do it! I don't care what it takes. I don't care what the conditions are. I'll do whatever it takes to escape death."

Hanabi began to laugh on his shoulder. A large toothy sneer made its way across his lumpy head. "Humans… are fun!" he finally said and leapt off Ryuk's shoulder and sat down right in front of him. Crouching down he reached out a skinny arm and lightly patted the ground in front of Ryuk twice. Ryuk strained his head to watch the little demon.

Suddenly a thick, transparent object came from the ground. Sheets of white paper were bound in a black leather cover. The words 'LIVING NOTE' were etched into the cover. Hanabi placed his hand over the book and it began to materialize.

"This is the Living Note. You and I are the only ones who can see it. All you have to do is write your name in it and it'll be done. You can live as long as you like." Hanabi chuckled to himself slightly.

Ryuk squirmed against his bonds for a second, "Writing? I don't know how to write! I know of only one person in the whole village who knows writing! And it was in a far away village!"

"What? Your village doesn't have any sort of writing?" Hanabi closed his eyes and scratched his head with one hand, "Lets see, in this situation a blood deal will apply. Just drop a little of your blood on this page here," Hanabi opened the book to a fresh page with five or so names already written in one corner.

Ryuk stared at it in amazement, "My blood…? A few drops of blood? Is that the only price to live forever?"

Hanabi began to scratch his head again, flakes of dead skin and hair fell off him, "Does that mean you're agreeing to the deal?" He said with a toothy grin breaking across his face. He stared at Ryuk through his white blind eye and his big red eye.

Ryuk nodded his head, "I'll give you as much blood as you need. Just untie me and…"

Hanabi stopped scratching himself, "Eh? Untie you? Nope. Can't do that. It's all part of the rules. I can't help you in any way sign - or in this case bleed - on the Living Note."

"What?" hissed Ryuk, "Rules? What rules? You're a demon!"

Hanabi shrugged his shoulders and ignored him.

Ryuk sighed, "I can't believe this," he muttered, "You can't bend these rules a little bit? How am I expected to sign anything if I'm tied up?"

This time Hanabi didn't even acknowledge he'd said anything. He turned his back to him and sat on his butt. Ryuk watched his skinny arm reach around to scratch his back.

Then an idea came to him, "Will you keep that book open? Keep it right there. You said no one else can see it, right?"

Hanabi nodded, "What are you going to do?"

Ryuk ignored him and began struggling to a sitting position. Then he began shouting to guard stationed outside the hut. "Hey! Hey! Nobo dog! Come in here! I want to talk to you! The second son of Chief Munagi demands you to come!"

The guard outside came in with eyes blazing. His skin was pitch black and his head was shaved. He moved quickly through the door armed with a giant spear with a dark blade at the tip. The guard obviously knew enough of their language to be insulted. Ryuk knew the guard's anger was necessary for his plan, but he had been hoping the guard wasn't in possesion of such a malicous looking weapon.

"!evila eb ot ykcul era uoy!yob lufetargnu uoy!?em ot yas uoy did tahw!?" shouted the guard. The corners of his eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were unnaturally black.

It was suicide. There was no other way to describe it. But Ryuk knew this was his only chance. His life in the village was over. By now his friends were surely dead, his mother, and especially his father would be dead or if not they would be receiving a fate even worse than death. It was best to get it all over quickly. That spear looked painful.

Ryuk shifted restlessly trying his best not to be too suspicious about it. Carefully trying to calculate how he would likely fall and how much consiousness he would have when he was falling.

"!efil ruoy ekat t'now I ebyam dna mrow lufetargnu uoy em ot ezigolopa?gniod uoy era tahw?" the guard shouted again.

Ryuk raised his head and made eye contact with the Nobo guard for the first time and last time. Ryuk took a deep breath and spat directly in his face. No words.

The Nobo guard moved faster than light. He used his spear and sliced Ryuk's chest open.

His blood was spilling out and Ryuk's body dropped to the dirt floor. Ryuk tried his best to guide his fall through the pain. He could feel all his blood pouring out of his chest and his heart eagerly and fearfully pumping it out as if to help his suicide. Consiousness was going faster than he expected and he wasn't sure if he landed right.

And then it was over.

- - - -

The guard had no way of knowing it but Ryuk would be the last person he would kill. By the next morning a strong counterattack would be launched on the Nobo warriors by Ryuk's older brother. As it was Ryuk's older brother Nahabo, first and oldest son of Chief Munagi, had taken the majority of the village's warriors to an adjacent village to set up an alliance. Upon their return and discovering their village and family had been comepletly wiped from the earth, they slaughtered the Nobo warriors and soon moved on to take the Nobo city as well. After this incident, Nahabo would live another twenty years and become a decorated hero in many battles. By the end of his life he would have five children and will die from a sudden, unexpected break of a major vein wrapped around his heart. Or more commonly, a heart attack.

The guard who killed Ryuk would die twenty feet from where Ryuk did. He would be killed by a sixteen-year-old who was to marry the burned girl Ryuk saw die by the Nobo warrior's sword. Thirty minutes after the village is won back, the boy would find his fiancee's corpse outside her home and not even recognize it for what it was.

Twenty hours after the village is won back, Nahabo would walk by the hut Ryuk was held in. He would stop and admire it as one of the few surviving examples that his people existed and then he would move on. Destined to leave forever soon after. This would be the closest Nahabo would come to find out what happened to his little brother.

- - - -

Ryuk's eyes shot open and he started to scream.

His back was being ripped open.

His first thought was the Nabo tribe was skinning him alive. They were tearing into his back to take off all his skin so they could wear it as they sacrificed the rest of him.

But there weren't any Nabo warriors around him. There was no one with him. Only Ryuk digging his fingernails into the stone ground and crying out.

Then he felt something _coming_ out of his back. It was something scorching hot and all his flesh felt like it was burning.

That was when he saw Hanabi. He fit in nicely with the barren wasteland. Much more than the African jungle. His gray, wrinkled body almost looked part of the wasteland. Like the snakes that blend in with their habitat so well that their prey walks right across their lumpy bodies before they realized that their puny lives were over.

"Hanabi!" hissed Ryuk, "You lying demon! You betrayed me! I saved your life and what have you done to me?" Ryuk hissed. He dug his nails into the dry earth and hissed with pain.

Hanabi looked at him with his one good eye and laughed.

"Stupid human, I didn't betray you. This is what you wanted. Eternal life. The chance to live forever."

The Living Note appeared before him like it did in the prisoner hut. It was turned wide open to the page with Ryuk's blood. His blood had splattered over an entire page as well as the adjacent page and it drenched the names of previous signers who wrote on the same page. Their names could still be read easily in the peculiar ink as if they were written on red paper.

"W-What's… happening… to me?!" screamed Ryuk as the fiery pain grew. Saliva ran down his chin and tears streamed down his face.

"What's happening are the conditions you said you didn't care about. Remember now? You said something a long the lines of: 'I don't care what the conditions are. I'll do whatever it takes to escape death.' Ringing any bells?"

Ryuk let out another scream and his body twisted. He fell shaking on his stomach when at last the pain began to subside. He could feel something off his back. He couldn't tell what it was, but he could feel it was heavy and awkward. Something was also dripping off it, maybe blood.

Ryuk was suddenly exhausted. He was too weak to turn his head and see what was on top of him and even less capable of concentrating on what Hanabi was saying. He could feel his consciousness fading as his eyes began to droop.

"Condition one: You're going to have to become a shinigami to live forever. Only shinigami and angels can live forever and I can't make you an angel. And your body is gonna start changing - that's what's happening to you now - some of it will change and you won't even know it. Some of it will be more painful like those wings on your back. It's just a fact; a human body just won't keep up in the Shinigami Realm. I have no control over that, either. The second condition is this: Your Death Note. You're gonna need your Death Note to live forever, but you can find out about that later…"

Ryuk was only slightly aware of Hanabi pushing his shoulder back and slipping a flat object under his chest.

"Can't… write…" Ryuk mumbled almost incoherently. Hanabi understood him fine.

"Trust me, you'll learn. But there's plenty of time for that later. Don't worry this will become easier when you wake up. Oh… and I almost forgot! Condition three: I'm gonna have to take your memories. All of them from the human world…"

And Ryuk closed his eyes for the last time as a human. Hanabi's terrible smile coming closer and closer and he powerless to stop him was the last memory Ryuk the human had. It was also the first memory Hanabi ripped from his soul as he began the task of erasing Ryuk's memories.


	2. Rem part 1

Death Note The Living Note Chapter 2 (Part 1) Rem

For weeks, the Duchess of Castleton and her child were the subject of gossip for everyone in the Royal Court. The news had jumped across the restricting borders of the class system and it had reached as far as the outskirts of England in a matter of days.

"The young lord had become deranged!" the people in the court whispered to each other.

"The lady and her husband had fallen into an argument and…."

"Shh! Shh! I overheard from milady that-"

"Did you hear of the Duchess of Castleton? Well, she-"

"When the lady awakes she will be despaired."

"If she wakes the doctors say…"

"May she never wake from her coma. For if she does the world will become very hellish to her."

"A fate worse than death it would be."

By the end of the month, Lady Rem, Duchess of Castleton, woke from her three-week coma. First, she cried. Then she locked herself in her room.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Lady Rem stayed in her room for three days. She let no one in and she refused to come out. No food or water was taken to her and her servants became very worried about their mistress. Finally, on the third night Lady Rem emerged from her room so suddenly that she startled a young maid walking by her door enough that the girl screamed.

It was said after that, Lady Rem had become a different person.

She used her position and began requesting things be brought to her on the dark arts. She drove away some of her most loyal servants in this time. They left cursing her and swearing that she was tampering in the devil's territory. Only the servants who desperately needed the work stayed on.

But Lady Rem paid them no attention. She had strange men and women trudging through her estate every hour of the day. Gypsies, strangers from all parts of the globe, tarot card readers, psychics, and con artists all flocked to Lady Rem.

Within weeks, she had completely ruined her status in court and she had been disowned by all her friends and family. Her fortune was dwindling and her estate was becoming neglected. She ignored the pleas and logic her servants gave her to stop her business in the dark arts.

After a month, Lady Rem's estate staff had been reduced to two servant girls and one cook. The estate was flooded with the dregs of society taking up residence in the first floor of her home. The place was a mess and the servant girls were afraid to go downstairs even to leave.

There was only one thing Lady Rem was looking for in all the texts of black magic she read through and all the magicians, alchemists, and psychics she met with. The one thing more important to Rem than all her fortune, her title, her friends and family, and even her name… was her child. She wanted to bring back her son from the dead.

Two months ago, The Duke of Castleton, Lady Rem's husband, went mad. On a stormy night, he came home drunk and beat Lady Rem black and blue. Then he pushed her down the grand staircase in their home. The servants and ladies-in-waiting working late immediately ran to the lady and summoned a doctor who lived down the road. No one realized the Duke of Castleton had slipped into his only son's room and suffocated the two-year-old. When he finished the Duke of Castleton shot himself in the head.

Lady Rem had sustained several cuts, bruises, several fractures, and minor broken bones. The worst of her condition was slipping into her coma. For weeks, the doctor wasn't sure if she would come out of it. In the weeks she slept, the majority of Lady Rem's injuries healed. After three weeks, she woke up. First, she cried…

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

The sun was shining through the stain-glass window behind Lady Rem. She was standing with her head cocked slightly at the ragged man in front of her.

The man was shaking. Everything about him was dirty. His hair was greasy, his clothes were disheveled, and even his hands were stained. He was holding a black book out to her. The book seemed to be made of thick paper with regular pages inside. It was wrinkled and folded as if it had been handled by a careless owner. It had a black cover and thin white circles and lines were etched into the top.

"What is this?" she asked. She had black hair tied up in a massive weaving bun on top of her head with the fashion. Today she was wearing an elaborate gown that was mostly light blue and white. A blue ribbon was braided into her hair and a length of it fell down on her shoulders.

"You're interested in the dark arts? This notebook will solve your troubles," gasped the man in front of her. His voice shook as heavily as his hands gripping the notebook.

"How can a book solve my troubles?" asked Lady Rem.

"It can, I swear it. Please take it."

"A book will not solve my troubles. Leave here at once."

"Please, Lady Rem, take it. I must get rid of it. You don't even have to give me anything for it. Just take it from me and I'll give it to you. _Please!"_

Rem stared at him in confusion. She'd been dealing with con artists and psychics for weeks searching for anything that could help her bring back her child. It depressed her at the lack of results. It was true she had seen some unexplainable things in these weeks, but nothing that could help her. To her it was beginning to look like for every honest psychic she saw there were five cons begging for her money. Although, no one from either category had ever approached her like this disheveled man. No one begged her to take something with no benefit to himself.

Curiously, Rem reached out for the book. If he was _giving_ it to her there couldn't be any harm in taking it. The moment Rem's hand gripped the book the stranger's head shot up and they made eye contact. His eyes looked savage and dark.

"I relinquish ownership of this note," the stranger hissed. The words were dark and they hung in the air flatly. Rem stared at him in horror and wondered what he meant by hissing such ominous words at her.

And then the stranger let go. He pulled back from Rem and the notebook a little bit straighter. His transformation was so subtle and sudden Rem could only stare at him dumbstruck. He looked like a completely different man.

His eyes were wider and they no longer darted nervously about the room. He stood a little straighter and his shaking stopped.

He stared at her in just as much confusion as Rem stared at him.

"I-I'm sorry," he stammered. His voice was lighter and still, "I – I don't… Maybe I should… Um, excuse me, lady." He bowed clumsily and excused himself quickly moved from the room. He shot her one last confused, unsure glance before the door closed behind him.

Lady Rem stared at the closed door a moment longer. The horror she had felt a moment ago was lifting rapidly and she now felt silly. She looked down at the book the man gave her. Rem reached up with her powder white hands and opened it.

The book was completely empty. Not a word. Rem grabbed it furiously and started flipping through the pages. There was nothing. Rem had been dealing with so many con artists lately that she was about to dart out the door and find the man when she remember that he had given the book to her at no price.

Then she heard a strange chuckle behind her and Rem whipped around to find its source. Behind her was a small creature sitting on her husband's desk. Its legs were pulled close to its rib cage and its body seemed to made up of sewn together patches. Its stitches were clumsy and awkward 

as they ran in different direction holding entire appendages together. The creature stared at her with only one eye; its right eye socket was empty.

It took everything Rem had not to scream. She leapt backwards and banged her back into the _door. She stared in horror at the little creature that had slipped in without her knowledge._

_What is it? Where had it come from? How did it get in?_ She had been facing the only door in the room and she hadn't heard any of the windows in the room open. She checked them out of the corner of her eyes. They were still closed.

"That Death Note doesn't run out of pages," whispered the creature in a childish tone.

Rem blinked at the creature. _Death Note?_ She glanced down at the book in her hands. She was still holding it open and her left hand was still holding on to one of the pages. She forced herself to let go of it. She'd rip it if she clutched the paper any harder.

"You were flipping through them, but you'll never reach the end that way because the Death Note has an infinite number of pages," the creature clarified.

Rem tried to calm herself. She realized the creature was attached to the book the man had given her. _Maybe this isn't a con after all_, she began to understand the man's strange demeanor before. _He said this book could help me,_ Rem suddenly remembered what the man said. _If there's any chance this strange creature can bring back my son… I must get over this fear of it. I won't be a shaking, trembling weakling like that man…_ Rem took a few more breaths to collect all her nerve and then straightened her back.

"My name is Lady Rem de Douvere, Duchess of Castleton, and you may call me Lady Rem. What may I call you?"

The creature tilted its head a little to the left as it studied her. It opened its mouth timidly and closed it again. Rem noticed even his mouth was stitched together, but the stitches were broken or very loose and allowed him enough room to speak. Finally, the creature was done studying the woman and whispered his name, "Gelus. I'm a shinigami and that is my Death Note."

Rem's mouth dropped open and she stared at the book in her hands. _His?_ _I assumed he was tied to the book somehow, but what now? Will this creature demand his book back?_ She began to feel a new fury for the strange man before. He had given her the book when it was not his to give? Had he just brushed off a cruel fate on her?

Rem closed the notebook and held it at her side and a little behind her. "This book is yours?" she asked innocently, "It was just given to me by a strange man."

Gelus nodded, "I saw. I was sitting here the whole time."

This shot Rem's confidence slightly and she recoiled. How had she not seen the creature slip in? Her mind wheeled back to when she had called the stranger up to this study. Had the creature hidden behind the man? Had she been so preoccupied with keeping an eye on the vagabond that she just hadn't noticed the small creature?

Gelus lifted a finger at her. He didn't seem to have any palms and it appeared that his fingers were attached to the end of a rounded off arm. "You couldn't see me then because only the people who touch the Death Note can see me. Asimov could see me because he was the owner of that notebook; when he gave it to you, he stopped seeing me and his memories of the Death Note were erased. Now you have the Death Note and you can see me. It's as simple as that."

"I don't understand. That man - Asimov? - he was the owner of this book? I thought you said the book was yours?"

"It is mine, but I lost it in this world and Asimov was the human who found it. After that, I was unable to take it from him until he gave it back to me."

"Why did he give it to me then? Why not just give it back to you?"

Gelus's eye looked toward the ceiling, "I don't know. He seemed to be a very cruel human, though. I think he wanted to get something for the notebook, but was too weak to demand for anything in the end. Maybe he thought you would turn him into the police if you pressed him too much."

"'If I pressed him too much…?'" Rem looked down at the book in her hand, "He said this book will solve my troubles… What does it _do_?"

Gelus looked back at her with his one eye. Rem swore she could hear it creek and crack when it moved. "For a shinigami like me, that book has one purpose. It keeps us alive. As shinigami, we have no life of our own. We use the notebook to kill humans -" At that Rem jumped a little, but Gelus ignored her and continued. "- We can see a human's lifespan with our eyes," a wry smile twisted on his stitched lips, "Or eye. I can see when you will die and I could see when Asimov would die. If I had my notebook and if I decided to write your names in it, that would kill you and the number of years of life you have left would be transferred to me and extend my lifespan. That's how it works."

Rem was staring shocked at him, "That makes no sense. Why would Asimov need with such a thing? Was he trying to keep you from killing him? Unless-"

Gelus nodded and his eye stared past her at the door, "It's exactly what you are thinking. Though a human can't extend their lifespan with the Death Note, the Death Note will still kill for them. Asimov killed a couple people. Of course, he has no memory of it now, but he killed them…"

Rem lowered her gaze to the ground to hide a wave of angry tears swelling behind her eyes, "He was nothing but a lying murderer. This notebook cannot help me." She gripped the Death Note so tightly her whole arm was shaking, "My wish does not lie in killing, but in resurrecting. You cannot help me. This book cannot help me."

Gelus cocked his head to one side curiously. He didn't ask, but for some reason Rem explained her story to the shinigami. He listened carefully and didn't say a word till the very end.

"If you give me back my notebook, I could write your name in it."

Rem looked at him stricken her eyes widening. She clutched the notebook to her side protectively now not trusting the creature to be so close to the book. He said he couldn't take it away from a human once they had it in their possession, but Rem was suddenly on guard.

"There is no such item or spell or power in this world that will bring the dead back to life. You are wasting your time and ruining your life looking for such a way. But I can kill you and put you out of your misery."

"Will I be able to be with my son?" Rem suddenly asked quickly even hopefully.

Gelus stared at her a long time. Surely, he was thinking carefully how to phrase his words. Finally, he mumbled through his stitched lips, "No."

Rem shook her head at him then. "No, I'm sorry. I can't let you kill me than. I also don't trust you enough to give you back your 'Death Note'."

For the first time in their conversation, Gelus allowed a little bit of emotion in his voice. At first, Rem thought he it was rage that made his voice waver, but it must have been fear. "You must! Lady Rem!" then he said in a more hushed tone, "The number of years I have left… it running out. I must write another name soon. I promise it won't be yours or any of your friends or family."

Rem shook her head at him. Then she looked down at the notebook in her hands. "After my husband pushed me down the stairs, I went into a coma for some weeks. The doctor told me several times that I could've died or not woken up at all. That's why I can't let you kill me yet. There had to be a reason I woke up or else I would've just died in my coma or not woken at all. I also can't give up on my son. You say there's nothing in this world that will bring him from the dead? Then I'll search another world. I'll create another world if I have too. I'll find my son."

"But… my years…" Gelus muttered weakly.

Rem gave him a cold stare, "I don't expect to keep this book for long. I certainly am not going horde it for years at a time. You'll get it back. But, as far as I'm concerned, your life isn't really a priority for me."

Gelus stared at the woman with his one, unsure eye.


End file.
